It has become a practice to use elastomeric sponge material in railway vehicle diaphragms to fully enclose the space between end passage openings of coupled vehicles or cars and support face plates which carry interengaging wear liners which are pressed together to form a complete seal throughout all the relative turning movements between vehicles in travel.
The diaphragm face plate liners are subject to constant rubbing contact and wear and the face plate assemblies sometimes become bent or distorted so that a complete seal against entry of air-borne dust, fumes, noise and the like cannot be maintained. The situation then often exists where only the face plate liner or face plate component is damaged while the major portion of the diaphragm unit remains in good serviceable condition. Nevertheless, it has been necessary to replace the entire diaphragm assembly in order to make the necessary restoration to serviceable condition.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,399,632, A. G. Dean, Sept. 3, 1968, shows a diaphragm installation of this general nature which is bolted to the end frame structure of a vehicle or car. In this construction and in all such similar prior proposed or applied constructions, so far as is known, the face plate sheet which carries the outer wear liner adhesively bonded thereto, is itself adhesively bonded to the outer end surface of the elastomeric sponge material. At the inner end surface the elastomeric sponge material body is adhesively bonded to an inner backing or supporting plate which is bolted to the end structure of the vehicle.